Ruled by hardcore capitalism, UK looks longingly at China

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66

It’s interesting to see which country UK ruling right-wing, anti-communist and anti-socialist elite are desperate to get to ‘invest’ in Britain: The People’s Republic of China. That’s right - the country ruled by the Communist Party since 1949.

"Not every country in the world is happy to see foreign
investment, including Chinese investment. The UK is not the case.
There are some countries, including European ones, who think the
answer to the global race is to erect trade barriers and find all
sorts of ways of making it clear that Chinese investment is not
welcome. Britain is not one of those countries. Indeed, I would
go as far as to say that there is no country in the West that is
more open to investment - especially investment from China - than
the United Kingdom is.

Who owns a large share of the London water supply - and a
share of Heathrow Airport? The China Investment Corporation! Some
nations wouldn't want Chinese investment in critical
infrastructure like water and airports. We welcome it." UK
Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in Beijing, 14th
October 2013

Britain’s ruling elite never loses any opportunity to tell us how
dreadful socialism and communism is. How the ONLY way to economic
prosperity is hardcore ‘free market’ neo-liberal
capitalism. Anyone who dares to suggest any deviation away from
this turbo-capitalist, international banker-friendly path is
branded a ‘Stalinist’, a ’Red’ or someone, who,
shock horror, wants to return Britain to the pre-Thatcherite
1970s.

If the British economy really was so dynamic, and so successful
under neo-liberal capitalism, why have the UK Chancellor of the
Exchequer and the Mayor of our biggest city flown off to Beijing
to beg the Chinese to invest in Britain?

And, if the only way to riches is neo-liberal capitalism, how can
we explain the economic success of China, which has followed a
very different path to Britain?

While of course there has been significant liberalization of the
Chinese economy since the days of Mao, the state still plays a
key role, both in terms of ownership and direction of the
economy. The Chinese operate a mixed economy, combining state and
private ownership - the sort of economy we had in Britain from
1945-79. This worked very successfully in increasing living
standards for the majority, but which we are told by our elite is
strictly ‘off-limits’ now.

China’s ‘best of both worlds’ economic model is the main
reason for its amazing success – and why it’s been able to
continue to do well despite the global financial meltdown of
2008.

"Its hybrid economic model continues to be based around a
publicly owned core of banks and corporations", explained
Seumas Milne in the Guardian earlier this year. "So, while in
Europe and the US, governments rely on indirect (and so far
entirely ineffective) mechanisms to reverse the collapse of
private investment at the heart of the crisis – and private banks
and corporations hoard bailout cash – China has the leverage
directly to boost investment, jobs and incomes."

If only the UK state had that leverage. But while we in Britain
aren’t allowed to copy the good aspects of the Chinese economy
and have a strong state-owned sector to boost investment, jobs
and income, neo-liberals want us to copy the bad aspects of the
Chinese model. "We need more roads like China where cities
like Shanghai have 10-lane highways. We're too obsessed by
railways and planning constraints,’ bemoaned Conservative
peer, Lord Wolfson, at a meeting of the right-wing Institute of
Economic Affairs. It’s a common gripe from free market
zealots that UK’s planning rules are somehow ‘holding back the
economy’ and the ‘build, build, build’ brigade look
longingly at China, where there are eight and ten lane motorways
and historic hutongs in Beijing have been demolished to make way
for new roads, shops and offices.

China is praised as a ’great’ nation when we’re after Chinese
money, but criticized, along with Russia, when the Chinese
government quite rightly puts a block on aggressive, warmongering
British foreign policy, as was the case with Syria.

We’re meant to laud China’s ten-lane motorways, and its lax
planning regulations, but not its mixed economy model. And while
we can’t - heaven forbid- have the British state owning our
national infrastructure on behalf of the British people, it’s to
be ‘welcomed’ that the China Investment Corporation, owned by the
Chinese state, can own our water and airports.

The very same people who warn us so much about the dangers of
‘communism’ have no problem at all with a country ruled by
the Communist Party buying up Britain. While, at the same time
we’re expected to swallow the nonsense that it’s the British
‘free market’ economic model that is the great world-beater.
There are indeed very important lessons to learn from China and
its economic success, but they are not the lessons that the UK
elite want us to learn.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.